Eyeglasses, in particular, are produced from optical lens blanks. Although individual optical surfaces have to be produced in order to correct visual defects of persons, the manufacture is one of mass production. Only in this way can the eyeglasses be produced cost-effectively. Since the production of lenses is traditionally a skill and always requires a high level of flexibility in order to produce the necessary optical surfaces, the state of the art includes numerous machines for performing individual work steps in an automated manner, for example, milling machines, turning machines, polishing machines and coating machines. However, manual work steps are still carried out between these automated work steps.
One of these work steps involves pulling off protective films, which are applied to a first lens face of an optical lens blank, while the second lens face is being machined. Here, protruding edges disrupt the machining, which is why adhesive bonding across the whole surface is used in most cases. To pull off the film, a worker uses a sharp tool to lift up the cover film and then pull it off. However, this is time-consuming and also causes scratches on the surface of the lens blank. This increases the number of rejects.